Part 15 (2/2)

Marlborough was no longer the property of a ”widow lady,” but accurate reporting even today is not universal, and Marlborough may have been meant. In any case, the mansion was not destroyed, although we do not know whether any other buildings at Marlborough were damaged or not.

John Francis Mercer, James' half brother, appears to have lived at Marlborough after his return from the Revolution. He served with distinction, becoming aide-de-camp to the eccentric and difficult General Charles Lee in 1778. When Lee was court-martialed after the Battle of Monmouth, John Francis resigned, but reentered the war in 1780.[144] He apparently settled at Marlborough after the surrender at Yorktown, at which he was present. In 1782 he was elected to both the Virginia House of Delegates and the Continental Congress. General Lee died the same year, stipulating in his will:

To my friend John [Francis] Mercer, Esq., of Marlborough, in Virginia, I give and bequeath the choice of two brood mares, of all my swords and pistols and ten guineas to buy a ring. I would give him more, but, as he has a good estate and a better genius, he has sufficient, if he knows how to make good use of them.[145]

It is not probable that John Francis' ”genius” was sufficient to make profitable use of Marlborough. He moved to Maryland in 1785, and later became its Governor.[146]

James Mercer died on May 23, 1791. In 1799 the Potomac Neck properties were advertised for sale or rent by John Francis Mercer in _The Examiner_ for September 6. We learn from it that there were overseer's houses, Negro quarters and cornhouses, and that ”the fertility of the soil is equal to any in the United States, besides which the fields all lay convenient to banks (apparently inexhaustible) of the richest marle, which by repeated experiments made there, is found to be superiour to any other manure whatever.” ”30 or 40 Virginia born slaves, in families, who are resident on the lands” were made ”available.”

FOOTNOTES:

[143] GEORGE BROWN GOODE, _Virginia Cousins_ (Richmond, 1887), p. 213.

[144] Ibid.

[145] ”Berkeley County, West Virginia,” _Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine_ (Richmond, 1921), vol.

3, p. 46.

[146] Ibid.

THE COOKE PERIOD: MARLBOROUGH'S FINAL DECADES

The plantation was bought by John Cooke of Stafford County. Cooke took out an insurance policy on the mansion house on June 9, 1806, with the Mutual a.s.surance Society of Virginia.[147] From this important doc.u.ment (fig. 43) we learn that the house had a replacement value of $9000, and, after deducting $3000, was ”actually worth six thousand Dollars in ready money.” The policy shows a plan with a description: ”Brick Dwelling House one Story high covered with wood, 108 feet 8 Inches long by 28-1/2 feet wide, a Cellar under about half the House.” Running the length of the house was a ”Portico 108 feet 8 Inches by 8 feet 4 Inches.” A ”Porch 10 by 5 f.” stood in front of the ”portico,” and another was located at the northeast corner of the building, ”8 by 6 feet.” The policy informs us that the house was occupied not by Cooke, but by John W. Bronaugh, a tenant or overseer.

The records do not reveal how long the mansion survived. That by the beginning of the century it had already lost the dignity with which Mercer had endowed it and was heading toward decay is quite evident.

After John Cooke's death Marlborough was again put up for sale in 1819, but this time nothing was said of any buildings, only that the land was adapted to the growth of red clover, that the winter and spring fisheries produced $2500 per annum, and that ”Wild Fowl is in abundance.”[148]

Undoubtedly as the buildings disintegrated, their sites were leveled.

There remained only level acres of gra.s.s, clover, and grain where once a poor village had been erected and where John Mercer's splendid estate had risen with its Palladian mansion, its gardens, warehouses, and tobacco fields. Even in the early 19th century the tobacco plantation, especially in northern Virginia, had become largely a thing of the past.

Within the memory of men still alive, the one structure still standing from Mercer's time was the windmill. Except for the present-day fringe of modern houses, Marlborough must look today much as it did after its abandonment and disintegration.

FOOTNOTES:

[147] Policy no. 1134. On microfilm, Virginia State Library.

[148] _Virginia Herald_, December 15, 1819.

ARCHEOLOGY

AND

ARCHITECTURE

<script>